SUMPTUOUS meals, an inner-city apartment used by his son for seven years, Christmas shopping and "income support" offsetting his mortgage were work expenses claimed by a former NSW RSL president who resigned for "health reasons", an inquiry into the veterans' charity was told on Monday.
Don Rowe was for more than a decade the president of the NSW branch of Australia's oldest charity for veterans before he resigned in 2014, the public was then told, because of his ailing health. Don Rowe, who was the president of the NSW branch of Australia's oldest charity for more than a decade, claimed meals, a family apartment, and more as expenses throughout the period, an inquiry was told.
But Fairfax Media later revealed that an internal audit found that from January 2009 to December 2014, Mr Rowe put about $475,000 on his corporate credit card. This included $213,000 in cash withdrawals.
A NSW public inquiry instigated into the charity following Fairfax Media reports was told Mr Rowe's work expenses included allowing a unit at a four-star hotel for the use of him and his son for up to seven years and meals at the pricey Mazzaro mediterranean restaurant.
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Mr Rowe said he was also told by administrative staff at the charity that a "presidential suite" at the four-star Hyde Park Inn was made available "for my use as I saw fit".
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"No, I didn't," Mr Rowe said.
Units at the Inn in central Sydney, which is owned by the RSL, are available for up to $500 a night for members of the public, the hotel told Fairfax Media on Monday.
Mr Rowe admitted that his son had moved into the apartment in 2007 while he was working in Sydney and had stayed there while he was at his Armidale home.
"He was there for about seven years," Mr Rowe said. The inquiry heard Mr Rowe and his son only moved out more than one month after his resignation as president.
The former president acknowledged using cash withdrawals on his RSL credit card to cover a range of personal expenses, including Christmas Eve shopping and, effectively, to help pay off his mortgage.
Mr Rowe's RSL card registered $600 in expenditure at an Armidale Coles on Christmas Eve; money he admitted "may well have been" spent on Christmas shopping.
RSL funds in the form of a $20,000 president's car allowance were also used to pay instalments on the $400,000 mortgage on Mr Rowe's Armidale home.
Mr Rowe said he had used the home as security to buy cars, but admitted that, because they cost less than $20,000, the allowance was effectively extra income.
"You used the RSL NSW credit card to support that income, correct?" Mr Cheshire said.
"It would appear so, yes," Mr Rowe said.
Mr Rowe was receiving pensions to the value of $1000 a week at the time of his presidency but conceded he had not declared additional income support.
The inquiry heard Mr Rowe also paid for meals, including for family members, at the nearby Mazzaro Restaurant in excess of rules requiring no more than $50 be spent on RSL business dinners.
"Effectively whenever you were down in Sydney you used the credit card to support yourself from day-to-day correct?" Mr Cheshire said.
"Correct," Mr Rowe said. "Regrettably on occasion I did [pay for family members' meals>[/embedp>
Saffron-infused angel hair pasta at Mazzaro costs $35, according to the restaurant's website.
Mr Rowe also agreed that the pattern of cash withdrawals on his work credit card suggested he had used expenses to support the costs of recuperation from an operation during 2014 rather than work at the RSL.
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A staff member did query an optometrist's bill, which, Mr Rowe said, he immediately repaid but he conceded he regularly did not keep receipts for expenses when he ought to have.
But in November 2014 the RSL discovered "large sums" had been used to pay for four of Mr Rowe's family members' mobile phone bills, the inquiry had earlier heard.
The public was told that Mr Rowe was resigning because he was facing ill-health.
But under questioning before the inquiry Mr Rowe agreed his resignation letter was ultimately misleading and that he had been given an ultimatum by former RSL national president Rod White early on the morning of November 25, 2014.
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But after conferring with his wife over the phone shortly after that ultimatum Mr Rowe agreed to resign rather than "fight", the inquiry was told.
Mr Rowe later paid back the RSL about $2500, a figure he said he had calculated himself based on the discovery of the recent expenditure relating to his relatives' mobile phone bills.
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"We've had a big stuff-up.
"I don't blame anyone else. The buck stops with me."
The inquiry, being overseen by former Supreme Court Judge, Patricia Bergin, SC, will resume on Thursday.
Sydney Morning Herald
